BJP's poor show in ministers' backyards

The results of the ULB polls will definitely give sleepless nights to a majority of the ministers in the Shettar Cabinet.

It has been a poor show by a majority of the Cabinet ministers. Senior ministers have failed to enthuse their party cadre in several civic bodies coming under their Assembly constituencies.

The most dismal performance by the BJP is in Davangere City Corporation, which comes under Davangere North Assembly constituency held by Horticulture Minister S A Ravindranath. The BJP has managed to bag just one seat in the 41-member Corporation. The party had gained a majority here in the 2007 polls.

The two powerful ministers of Bagalkot district - Kannada and Culture Minister Govinda Karjol and Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani have cut a sorry figure in the ULBs polls.The ULBs in the Assembly constituencies of the two ministers who recently locked horns with each other over their sugar business in the district have been lost to the Congress.

The BJP, in Mudhol TMC, which comes under Karjol’s Assembly segment, could secure seven wards against Congress’ 18. In Bilagi Town Panchayat, which comes under Nirani’s Assembly constituency, the BJP could secure only five wards against Congress’ eight.In Shimoga CMC, which comes under Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa’s Assembly constituency, the BJP has been pushed to the second place, securing eight seats against Congress’ 12.

Ministers C T Ravi (Chikmagalur), D N Jeevaraj (Sringeri), Umesh Katti (Hukkeri) and M P Renukacharya (Honnali) have reasons to smile as the BJP has secured a majority in the ULBs under their Assembly constituencies.

Hubli-Dharwad, under the Assembly constituency of Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, is the only City Corporation among the seven which went to polls where BJP has emerged as the leading party. But, with 33 seats in the 67-member Corporation, it falls one short of majority.

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